Into the Storm of Revolution
by Hiss13
Summary: All it took was a sudden encounter. A simple search-and-rescue mission ends up going horrendously awry as a cry of help from a young princess leads Nanoha to run headfirst into a political storm on a previously undetectable planet.
1. Prologue: Princess

**Prologue**

 **Gamble Under Fire:/Princess**

A faint orange glow painted across and corrupted the star-covered night sky over Aurora, the royal castle of Aurelia. Smoke further corrupted that glow as thick wisps rose up across at uneven intervals.

"Put out the fire!"

"Locate the princess!"

"The assailants couldn't have reached far!"

The royal guard's orders were echoing all over the castle as one of its wings kept bursting into more and more flames. Explosions were set off at various points in the Princess's Wing at irregular intervals. Through those flames, a single girl ran.

"How long until we reach the area above the launch wing, Aileen?" The girl running spoke to a small portable terminal in her hand. She had a full duffel bag strapped over her shoulder, covering a largely bloodied portion of her cyan night clothes. Her black hair was completely disheveled as it ran down her upper back and across her shoulders. Despite the conditions of heat and smoke, she seemed unperturbed, barely winded, as if not a hair was out of place.

"It'll take another twenty minutes at this rate even through the shortest path!" A voice rang out from the disk-shaped device in her hand. Projected over the central screen was a holographic humanoid figure with red half-frame glasses, short, vivacious red hair, and an equally vibrant lacy formal dress. "This is too reckless! At this rate, the confusion will die down and the royal guard will catch you! Miss Sophie, even if you-"

"Which charge is closest to the destination if you ignore obstacles, then?" Calmly, Sophie questioned her holographic companion.

"There's one shortly after the upcoming corner, but you'd have to jump to its island if you-"

"That's good enough for me." With a grin, she veered towards the wall before pressing a couple of buttons on the terminal.

BANG! CRASH!

A pressure wave pressed against her run and shattered the glass in the windows only a few meters to her right immediately shattered. But as she was out of the fragments' splash zone, she continued to run unabated until she turned the corner and saw the hole in the windows she had opened up with the charge.

Without a second thought, her legs carried her straight through the hole and into a set of bushes. Regardless of how many branches scratched at her or how dense the foliage was, she maintained what momentum she had gained in her flight and pushed straight through until she reached a grassy field that ended over a cliff.

"THIS IS CRAZY! THAT'S A 100 METER DROP!"

"AILEEN! We're not letting this opportunity slide." Without another word, she pushed herself forward and leaped straight off the cliff. In that moment, all touch sensation seemed to disappear around her as gravity began to pull her down to the airborne island that was known as the launch wing. Once the ground of the castle's island had terminated, she immediately placed her mana beneath her legs and a crude and unrefined magic circle materialized beneath her feet. The arteries in her ankle and feet immediately began to throb and pulsate wildly as the magic slowed down her descent, letting her land on the road to the launch facility as lightly as a feather would.

 _See, Aileen?_

That's what she would have said if she had a moment to relax, but her stumbling to regain her bearings was taking out what little time she had left. Even if she had to strain her legs, she pushed herself as far as she could, running into the launch facility.

Without turning on the lights, she ran through the long corridor until she found the door that was labeled 'Experimental Transports'. Quickly, she opened the door a crack and entered it before shutting it behind her and running down the stairs.

"The transport should be the first one we find as soon as we enter the launch space. It'll already be on the rails." Aileen chimed, giving off the position of their destination. "It should be right abooooooout...there! That one on your left!"

As she finally reached her destination, Sophie found what was an escape pod for a single person. It had enough space for a person to latch in some luggage and lay down in. It was what was known as the cryostasis pod. In order to allow for interstellar travels for long distances and accommodate for the effects of a crash landing on a solo trip, it was designed to place the traveler into cryostasis in order dampen crash impacts and centripetal forces on the user while keeping them in a state where biological functions would not progress while still being alive.

Ultimately, it had one huge downside, but Sophie was not currently in the position to be picky. Even though the entire set of technology was experimental, it was the best option she had if she needed to bring in external help.

After she had tapped on the screen a few times, the single door opened up overhead, she threw her bag into the sidehatch in the pod before opening up the connector for her terminal's interface.

She placed her terminal into the slot and much like a floppy disc into its respective drive, it slid straight in and started being read. Above the drive slot, a bigger hologram version of Aileen was projected and a command user interface began to display behind her.

"Alright. Begin setting our course. Find the nearest planet with sentient life on it." Sophie began to calmly throw out orders to her AI companion while she took her seat in the pod and clasped the seat belt on. "Let's get this show on the road."

"Are you still sure about this? There's still time to turn back. It will take a good fortnight to reach the nearest planet with sentient life and even then, we're taking an absurd gamble."

With a soft smile, Sophie let her eyes turn to face Aileen. "Yeah. I'm absolutely sure." With that, she pressed on the buttons that would allow her to shut the door. "We'll save this world. We have to."

The door finally clamped shut.

On that fiery night, a single transport pod ascended up the royal family's mass driver into the heavens.

* * *

"That actually sounds stupid. I've seen the Arthra's squad and equipment. You guys are nowhere near properly equipped for any form of search and rescue." An obviously annoyed voice rang out on Nanoha's communications headset.

"Come on, Arisa-chan. It's not like it's a-"

"No. This has been a long time coming. First we get this stupid assignment on leadership philosophies over history, which is clearly over our heads and the you get sent off on a wild goose chase after some engineer who went missing months ago and that the administration bureau still can't find even after numerous searches. It's stupid! You agree too, right, Suzuka?"

"Nyahaha~" With one hand on her headset, Nanoha continued to saunter at her own pace and laugh along with her friends' usual antics.

Beyond her chuckling, though, the world around her was mostly silent barring the sounds of the waves of the nearby sea crashed against the docks. The space was quite wide so the density of people at this time of night, even at Port Town, Ruwella, was sparse. Every so often, Nanoha would see a couple of dock workers who were probably on night shift wandering about, but there was hardly any sign of life or movement in the past fifteen minutes she had been there for.

"Well, I do agree that it does sound like a bit of a pointless assignment." On the third node of the call, a softer voice spoke up.

"Wait, are you talking the one for history class or Nanoha's sudden deployment?"

"Yes." Suzuka's deadpan single-word response crushed all hope of response as silence once again encroached, only being staved off by Suzuka's own laughter.

"It really wasn't _that_ funny, Suzuka." Having been thrown off completely by Suzuka's laughter, Arisa let whatever passion she held towards the subject finally die down. "How long do you think you'll be deployed for, Nanoha?"

"According to Chrono-kun, we're likely going to be stationed on Ruwella for about a week."

"A week doesn't sound like enough for a thorough planet-wide search, though." Suzuka dropped a quick assessment of Nanoha's given estimate.

"It isn't. The planetary system has been combed over numerous times since Erin Crescent's disappearance. In the past few months since her disappearance, no sign has turned up on this planet or in the vicinity. If anything, this search is meant to be more of a final clean-up to confirm that she isn't here before the Administration Bureau closes the case and archives it." Nanoha sighed and stopped walking to look off in the direction of the sea.

"So, the bureau's already assumed the worst."

"Yeah..." As she uttered that single word, her gaze lowered as she felt her muscles relax in response to a feeling of complete dread. Nanoha was hardly a naive girl. Despite being only twelve, she still had seen far more than the average person her age would have ever been privy to see. Even so, she was still very much the type of idealist who wished to reach a hand out to everyone she could.

The situation could hardly be called ideal, though.

"If I was there, I'd smack you upside the head or butt right now! You're feeling downtrodden now, aren't you?"

"Eh, Arisa-chan?" Feeling her mind being snapped back into the conversation after dozing off, Nanoha reflexively spoke out the name of the friend who was brashly berating her.

"She's right. There's no need to go down in the dumps over this incident. Besides, what would Fate-chan think if she saw our dear Nanoha-chan was like this."

"She'd be all in your face for sure, probably pulling your cheeks with a straight, perturbed face until you start smiling plus-"

"Nyahaha. I guess so." Nanoha lifted her head back up and stared into the starry night time canopy above her head and laughed. "There's no point in getting bogged down with the ifs and if nots at this stage."

"Exactly! Speaking of Fate, what's she up to? She left a couple of days before you did, didn't she?"

"Fate-chan went to Headquarters for the Enforcer Examination." Nanoha could clearly remember the nerves of the girl as she and Lindy had headed off to Cranagan to take what was supposedly a hellish exam that even the mightiest in the TSAB had feared to tread. Though, that was what the word among those who had never taken it was. In actuality, a fair amount of the details of the exam were kept under wraps for obvious reasons due to gag orders on participants and organizers. All that was really known was that it was an exam that took place over two weeks to screen numerous candidates via alternating written, combat, and case study exams.

In retrospect, the gag order really didn't help, but bureaucracy was a snail-paced mistress. It would take a while before any actual changes on that front were ever to take place.

"So, that's what it was. Explains why she was so nervous at the surprise party we gave her when she got the selection letter."

The three girls stared off into whatever monochrome scenery awaited before them, be it the night sky or a pure white dresser.

"Perhaps we may have been a bit too hasty and tactless with that party." After enough awkward silence had formed between the three friends, it was Suzuka who once again pierced through that cold unfeeling void.

"Agreed."

"Definitely."

"Pfft-" "Nyahahaha" It took not even a second for the three girls to break into synchronous laughter, lasting for a good while before they all finally finished letting it all out.

"Do you think we should get another party ready?"

"Arisa-chan."

"I know, I know. Fate's going to probably be sleeping for a week straight once the exam's finally over but we should definitely plan another party for after she wakes up. Finishing that hellish exam is worthy of celebration regardless of the result."

"I think it'd make her happy." Suzuka politely chimed in, standing on Arisa's side.

"Plus, she'd make that same embarrassed look she did for the last one. I know you found that super adorable last time she did it."

"…" Nanoha could only respond in silence. There was hardly anything she could deny in her friend's statement. "Fine. We'll set that party up for after Fate-chan returns!"

"ALRIGHT! WE'RE GOING TO HAVE THE BEST DAMN PARTY EVER!"

 _"Bannings! Cease this shouting at once! Morning homeroom's about to start!"_ In response to Arisa's shout, an equally loud shout seemed to have been directed at her.

"I guess that's our cue to end this. Come on, Arisa. Hang up~"

"Right, right. Catch you later Nanoha~"

"Mm. Catch you in the morning." The inputs on her earpiece then cut off as her friends hung up.

In the end, interplanetary time differences were a strange thing. Differences in time between any random planet she could be on and her own were tended to be variable since it was hardly like every planet had a 24 hour cycle. It was hardly like being on two separate time zones on earth.

It was taxing to say the least. Regardless of how many times Nanoha had gone off planet, this was hardly something she had gotten used to. Though, if her career in the Administration Bureau ever ended up taking her further up the ladder like Fate's was, things were going to get far more demanding in terms of keeping up contacts.

Really, this should not have been a thing for a twelve year old girl like herself to worry about but alas, life was hardly kind enough to accede to 'should have's and 'would have's. Even so, those thoughts continued to remain on her mind even as she walked down the port area with genuine intent to locate Erin.

Though, the continued hour of nothingness began to dull her consciousness. She was beginning to let a yawn break when she saw a glowing light in the night sky that was growing to a far bigger size than any of the stars.

As her eyes trained to that slowly but ever widening luminescence, Nanoha directed whatever bits of focus she had shed from boredom and exhaustion towards it.

In those few seconds, that boredom and exhaustion were quickly replaced with caution and anticipation. As if some survival instinct set in, Nanoha's brain unconsciously began making calculations.

At the end of those few seconds, that bright light pierced though the star-lit night canopy of Port Town and crashed a great distance away into forestry. Dust, dirt, and greenery flew through the air, dragged along by the wind pushed out by the collision's inevitable heat.

Following through with her reflexes, the girl braced down and instinctively formed a defensive wave of pink mana in front of her. As the wind slowly died down, she kept her eyes focused on the landing site of whatever had landed. With her free hand, she began to dig into her shirt and grope around until she felt the red orb that was her intelligent device.

" _Nanoha! How far away from the impact site are you?"_ A young girl's voice began to ring out in her head. Nanoha found herself found herself quite impressed by the response time of her colleague. _"I'm about 50 kilometers away._ "

" _I'll head over first, Vita-chan. I'm only about thirty kilometers away, it looks like."_ Considering Vita was combing through the opposite side of the absurdly large port town and its surroundings, it only made sense that she would be further away.

"Raising Heart! Set Up!"

" _Yes, master!"_

After being surrounded by a quick pink flash, her body was now draped in a pristine white, blue, and black armored dress while her left hand was now occupied holding a gold, pink, and white staff with a red gem at the end.

" _First Lieutenant Takamachi Nanoha, sortieing."_ Having gone through as much proper protocol as she needed, she formed pink wings at her ankles and floated slightly upwards before accelerating to top speeds at an instant, leaving behind a trail of pink light and an explosive bang.

It didn't take too long for the scenery of Port Town to fade into the horizon and for the ground beneath her to be painted with lush greenery.

" _Estimated time of arrival: 55 seconds. Should I initiate Wide Area Search?"_

"Yes. Direct it to the target location ahead of us and transmit full audiovisual field."

" _Understood. Beginning W.A.S._ "

A small, translucent pink orb trickled out of the core gem on the device and hovered beneath Nanoha for a second before picking up speed and going even further ahead.

As the Nanoha followed in pursuit, a display with the search's forward view popped up. She could finally see the dust cloud coming from whatever was at the center of the crater.

Within a few seconds, the search drone was finally in front of the object in question. It was a cylindrical capsule-like apparatus with a few rocket boosters and a window which was likely made from some rigid polymer. Through that window, she could see—

 _This is—_

" _First Lieutenant Takamachi_. _Have you been able to ascertain what it was that landed?"_ From her head, she could hear the voice of her commanding officer, one Chrono Harlaown, struggling to gather as much information as she could.

"Yeah." With a wave of her hand, she shut off the search program as she ground herself to a stop and floated down into the crater in front of the capsule. "The universe hath given to us the gift a young girl popsicle." She could almost swear that some of Arisa's and Vita's combined sarcasm was beginning to rub off on her.

Inside the capsule was a black-haired girl in what were slightly bloodied cyan pajamas. Her black hair was utterly disheveled and she was obviously out cold. It was an utterly bizarre sight to behold—an abrupt encounter that could only lead to a snowball effect of chaos and Nanoha was about to dive headfirst into it, as what counted for normality in her life, at least, would dictate.

"I think a rescue team is in order for this."

* * *

 **A/N: Well, this is my first time writing a Nanoha fic. I've kinda ended up doing this weird meld where I've placed this in a mix between the StrikerS and movie timelines since Reflection (and Detonation, by logic) take place before Nanoha's incident in the StrikerS timeline. As such, I ended up having a little fun.**

 **I plan to write this with a certain theme in mind. Hopefully I haven't already laid it down too thick.**

 **Hopefully, you all come to enjoy this.**


	2. Record 01: Lieutenant

**Record 01**

 **Warpath at the Table:/Lieutenant**

 **1**

"Catch, Nanoha!" A bottle of lemonade began to fly in an arc until Nanoha caught it in her upraised hand. After a quick gaze at the drink she had received, she turned to the source of the voice and throw. She was a red-headed girl with dual braids and seemed to be about the same age as Nanoha on first glance. Like Nanoha, she wore a blue and white double breasted jacket and a navy blue skirt—the uniform worn by all Air Armaments Service members.

"Vita-chan." Nanoha's words seemed to come out mindlessly as she stared at her former enemy turned pretty good friend, Vita. "What are you doing here?"

"I could be asking you the same." Vita gave a scowl as she took her seat down next to Nanoha on the bench. As she turned her head, she saw through a window doctors and nurses monitoring and treating someone on the other side. "Even if you sit here, it's not like things will get any better for that girl."

"I know." Nanoha's eyes glazed over as she directed her gaze back towards the frantic scene in the infirmary's operation room. "I know that." Her free hand began to tighten into a fist. "But even so, I was the one who found her. Even if there was nothing I could do to prevent that state. Even if she's a complete stranger. Even if there's nothing I can do right now, I still need to see this through to the end."

"You're being unreasonable, Nanoha." Vita opened up her own drink bottle to take a quick sip.

"I know I am." Nanoha sighed and unclenched her fist to start pulling away at the bottle's cap. "But I still need to—KYA!"

Nanoha found her attention immediately grabbed by startling snapping sound. While that girl had been focusing on her own words, Vita had reached in front of her face and snapped her fingers as loud as she could. In likelihood, some magic was probably added to amplify it slightly.

Turning her face to Vita, she could only see the redhead's scowl. "That's enough. You need to stop overtaxing yourself like this. I know you've recovered from the incident, but the more you keep doing this, the more things like that will repeat."

Nanoha stayed silent. It was not like Vita was wrong. It had been only a couple of months since she had returned to active duty on the TSAB. Her free hand rested itself on her abdomen, the locus on her body on where the unidentified enemy had ran her through with a blade.

A phantom pain shot through her as her finger traced where the scar would have been. Memories of three years of fatigue finally catching up to her in one crucial instant flashed through her head.

"It's alright to get some rest." Those memories were immediately cut off by Vita's hand reaching around her head and pivoting it onto her shoulder. "We're not built to go at a hundred percent all the time. Forcing yourself to make up lost time or pushing yourself in punishment. Weighing your heart down in guilt or fear. I don't really know what you're doing but you won't last in the end if you keep it up. You don't need to keep yourself going at 100%, physically or emotionally."

She could feel Nanoha finally beginning to lose tension. "So, just rest and lean on our damn shoulders for once. We're fully capable of supporting you."

"Yeah. You're right." Nanoha's muscles finally relaxed down as her lips curved up into a smile.

"Damn straight I am." Though she was unable to see Vita's face since her head was firmly planted onto the redhead's shoulder, she was sure that Vita was giving a warm, yet smug smile on her own. That would have been a very Vita-like thing to do.

* * *

 **2**

"Frankly, this is going to be more annoying than I expected."

Walking down one of the Arthra's corridors was a heavily mismatched male-female pair. The young girl with short brown hair wore a navy blue suit and skirt, the uniform of the Dimensional Navy division. The male with dark-blue hair, who was at least a head or two taller than the girl, wore a black trenchcoat-esque uniform, which functioned as one of the multiple uniforms used by Enforcers.

Despite the formality of their appearances, the two were obviously mismatched in terms of demeanor which only served to contrast with the atmosphere of the ship's corridors. While the boy looked like he fit right in, with the straight-laced posture and attitude one would expect of a military officer, the girl was obviously donning nothing more than a mask of seriousness as she carried herself far more frivolously.

Such was the disparity between Chrono Harlaown and Hayate Yagami.

"Going by how she was talking, she obviously wants to turn this into a negotiation. She's keeping way too many cards close to her chest." Chrono rubbed his forehead to mitigate what was clearly a headache beginning to make itself known.

"Though, I don't blame her. Sophie's encountering a military force she has never seen before. We're a lion's den so she likely thinks that it's best to tread carefully. We can't do much when all she's given us is a name." Hayate shrugged as she stated the unfortunate reality of their interrogation. "Besides, as far as we know, she's not a criminal so we can't try and force information out."

Shortly after Sophie was thawed from cryostasis, she was luckily for all involved, quite active. All vitals were found to be normal so she was merely kept on watch while she was taken for interrogation.

"I know. Everything about her screams 'I need help'. Though she refuses to say anything beyond her name."

"Well, look at it this way. As much of a diversion as it is, her requests were reasonable. Besides, you wouldn't jump through these hoops if you didn't feel even a tinge of sympathy, Chrono. After all, you didn't lie to her about who had found her~" All pretense of seriousness finally dropped from Hayate's face as she gave a smug grin to her superior officer.

"She just wanted to properly thank Nanoha and not feel like she's being under suspicion. Dropping any and all suspicion around her is unreasonable. But, if that's all it will take for her to give more information about herself, I think we can accede."

Despite his words, he could hardly bring himself to relax in the slightest. Keeping the flow of information stunted was a legitimate negotiation tactic and from her perspective, negotiations for whatever she was after had begun the moment she had gained consciousness.

"Well, there's no point in stressing yourself over it at this point. As much as we want to read the situation, we can't do much with a completely obstructed flow of information." Hayate quickly circled around in front of Chrono and placed her finger on his obviously furrowed brow. "So, relax a bit, Chrono-kun~ A commanding officer does need to maintain some dignity after all."

Chrono brought himself to a stop as he frowned at the girl in front of her, but he had known her long enough to know that girl was never the type to budge when it came to this. "Fine, fine. But really, Hayate. You're the last person who should be lecturing others on dignity."

"Whatever could you possibly mean?" Hayate instinctively stuck her tongue out and tapped her fist onto her head before removing herself from the boy's path.

"By the way, Chrono, if we're going to call for Nanoha, isn't the bridge the other way?"

"I just want to check by the operating room. Last I had heard, she was sitting there watching the operation from the window." Chrono said, starting to speed up his walk has he rounded the next corner. "Speak of the devil herself."

Hayate, on the other hand, brought a finger up to Chrono's lips to silence him before pulling out Schwertkreuz in its standby form. With a smile on her face, she simply whispered to the device, "take a couple of snapshots."

Sitting on that bench protruding from the wall was Nanoha, who had placed her head on Vita's shoulder, and Vita, who had let her own head rest on top of Nanoha's in an almost totem-like fashion—both deep in slumber.

* * *

 **3**

The Arthra was equipped with a wide variety of non-combat facilities such as an archive, baths, and numerous rooms and offices. One such facility was a singular briefing room used for pre-combat or non-combat scenarios. It really only had enough chairs at the moment to seat eight people but could contain five times as much if needed. At the center of the briefing room was a large table which mostly consisted of a single display. Three chairs flanked each of the long sides and one on each of the short sides.

Normally, whoever was at the top of the hierarchy would take their seat at the end of the table furthest from the entrance, but circumstances necessitated a more intimate formation.

Chrono took his seat the center chair on one of the longer sides. The chairs that would normally be flanking him were cleared aside as three girls stood by his sides—Vita and Hayate on the left and Nanoha at his right.

Opposite to him was the black-haired girl who had until a few hours prior been in a state of cryostasis. Unlike the cyan pajamas she was wearing before, she was wearing a long-sleeved black t-shirt with a pink floral pattern around the collar, fingerless gloves of a matching pink, pink glasses, a peach-colored mini-skirt, black stockings, brown boots, and a ponytail. In contrast to the formality presented by four on the other side, she seemed to be dressed more like an idol in a disguise to hide from the public. Though, these were apparently the clothes she had stowed away in the bag that was found in the capsule's storage compartment.

In front of her, on the table, was a circular device projecting what was likely a hologram of a woman in a red dress.

"In order to get through the formalities, allow us all to introduce ourselves first. I am Rear Admiral Chrono Harlaown of the Time-Space Administration's Dimensional Navy and the commander of this ship." The first to speak was the man who had set up the negotiation? Interrogation? Whatever this entire vaguely defined event could be called.

"Lieutenant-Commander Hayate Yagami of the same division."

"First Lieutenant Nanoha Takamachi of the Time-Space Administration's Air Armaments Services."

"Second Lieutenant Vita Yagami of the same as her." Vita said, casually pointing towards Nanoha.

The girl took a deep breath in and looked to the projection on the device before her before steeling herself and gazing into Chrono's eyes. "Sophie Estelle Aurora, Princess and Sole Heir to the Aurelia Constitutional Monarchical Planetary Union. Am I correct to assume that one of those three girls is the one who uncovered my transport pod?"

Three hands directed index fingers towards the girl in auburn pigtails standing on her lonesome by Chrono. Caught off-guard by the quick reaction, Nanoha found herself turning her head to face the three people pointing at her before looking back to Sophie.

"Nyahaha." The girl gave an awkward chuckle as a faint blush made itself visible on her cheeks.

"I see. Well, Lieutenant Takamachi." The girl who called herself a princess bowed her head towards Nanoha, much to her embarrassment. "You have my deepest gratitude for saving my life."

Blushing, Nanoha began to wave her hands in front of her face. "No, no. No need for that. Anyone else would have done the same thing. It's only natural."

Sophie lifted her head and stared back into the eyes of the girl who had just casually spoken. To pass off the act as if it was hardly a big deal or burden was something she had rarely seen. In the end, the princess found herself giving a genuine smile as she spoke. "You're a kind person, Lieutenant Takamachi."

Nanoha could hardly figure out how to react to that statement. So, she simply didn't. "Just call me Nanoha. There's no need to use that stuffy rank and last name, Sophie-chan."

"Nanoha, huh..."

"Eh-hem." Sophie's head jolted back to face the one in charge as soon as he cleared his throat.

"Right. Since you held up your end, I'll explain myself as promised, Rear Admiral." The princess brought her elbows up onto the table and clasped her hands together. "I've already given you my name and affiliation, so I guess that's as good enough a place to start. I come from a planet called Aurelia. I haven't really gauged its position to where we are now so you'll have to refer to Aileen for any details on its location since she's the one who logged our flight path." Aileen simply waved the moment she was brought up, but aside from that, she had yet to say a single word in the presence of any of the TSAB.

"Chrono." Hayate looked back on Chrono, but the boy simply shook his head. He had likely already predicted what she would ask—whether he had any information on the planet she had named before. Though the answer was quite obvious.

"As you've probably put together from what I've said, Aurelia is a planet united under a single monarchy. It's been that way for the past 100 or so years after my great-grandfather attained dominance during the instability of the balance between the three powers during the information technology revolution and..." Sophie paused for a second when she realized she was starting to give what would be a ramble about her planet's history. As important as the nuances of the world's history may have been to her, it was irrelevant at the moment. "While there have been some disturbances in the world's balance, it has remained mostly peaceful. But the Royal Academy came across something about a year ago that threatens that stability—the discovery of a new, untapped energy source. What you all call magic."

At the end of that, Sophie raised her right hand and opened up her palm before her eyes. Some light pulsed through her hand before a crude magic circle appeared above her hand. As far as the TSAB officers could recognize, it fit into neither of the three styles that they had encountered—Midchildan, Belkan, or Eltrian.

But, within a few seconds, the sigil grew unstable and disintegrated. "Well, it's in its developing stages, but we discovered this energy source."

Chrono's eyes narrowed. "Discovered an energy source?"

"Is something wrong, Chrono-kun?" Nanoha focused on the now perturbed man as she came to realize that he had been thrown off by that one phrase he muttered.

"How do you three think magic comes to be discovered and harnessed in undeveloped worlds?"

"Some random bozo like Nanoha discovering untapped magic potential?" Vita chided.

"Hey!" In obvious response, Nanoha stared straight into Vita's eyes and delivered a devastating pout.

"No. Think closer to the fundamentals." Chrono sighed, ignoring Vita's not-so-veiled jab.

"The discovery of the Linker Core." Hayate muttered, unconsciously clutching at Schwertkreuz.

Chrono nodded. "The discovery of and the eventual capability to manipulate the flow of the Linker Core's magic production is what ends up being key in world discovering magic. At least that's the normal pattern. And in that normal pattern, the first steps are hardly calling it a 'newly discovered energy source' due to the nature of magic."

"I see. So, we got it backwards, huh. The Royal Academy's not gonna live that one down for a while." Sophie struggled to stifle a chuckle before she continued. "But you are right, Rear Admiral. What you call the Linker Core was a later discovery. What we first discovered were the planet's leylines."

"What was that?" All it took was those three words from Chrono for a heavy pressure to overtake the entire room. The three girls by his side dared not look towards him as his gaze focused into the princess's eyes.

Despite being unsure as to what she said that was so egregious, the princess reciprocated the pressure with a soft gaze and repeated herself. "The Linker Core was a later discovery. What we discovered first were the planet's leylines."

"Is something wrong, Chrono-kun?" Nanoha was the first to speak up about her confusion as to what was said. She could easily guess what had perturbed Chrono so much, but she could not guess why. It was only something she could get from process of elimination.

"Nanoha, Hayate, Vita. Since the time you've entered the TSAB, how much have you heard about the concept of leylines?"

Silence reigned as the three girls began to sift through their memories in hopes of finding some hint of the term. "At most, I remember the concept being thrown around by civilizations previous masters of the Book of Darkness but that was it." The first was Vita going into older memories past the scope Chrono had given.

"I think Yuuno-kun mentioned the term to me once while we were in the Infinity Library. He said they were unnatural and even dangerous, but rare."

"It figures Ferret Boy would be the only one to actually mention the concept." Chrono sighed. Despite the reaction, he was pleasantly surprised with the fact that his subordinates had heard of the concept outside of fantasy novels. Meanwhile, he focused his attention to Sophie, who was clearly sitting in a state of natural ignorance and confusion. "Nanoha got the base of it, though. Despite the name and the many stories surrounding them across worlds, leylines are actually not natural phenomena. In fact, they're incredibly rare because of that."

Sophie gulped at the sound of that. From that very moment, the balance of power in this negotiation had shifted completely in favor of the TSAB officers and she had yet to even make the request she intended. "But it's not like there's anything wrong with their existence. They were likely on the planet long before the kingdom's precursors even came into power."

"The fact of the matter is that the planet-wide circuits of mana known as leylines are artificial. Their purposes are generally unknown as those who worked to create them have always long since passed. They're essentially planets with an infinitely flowing circuit of mana that can influence the land it runs through and even the space around the planets they rest on. As a result, the Bureau classed the few planets that we have discovered with leylines as Lost Logia."

"You subjugated their populations…?" At this point, the fear in Sophie's eyes was evident. Her eyes were reminiscent of someone who had made a huge bet at a casino and found themselves in greater debt than their initial bet. Even further beyond that, there was something else—something Nanoha could only call familiar but found herself unable to pin down.

"OW!" Nanoha, Hayate, and Vita all simultaneously brought fists down onto Chrono's head. "What was that for?"

"Can't you see you're cornering her?"

"She's terrified, Chrono-kun."

"You're never going to make Amy happy if you keep acting like this with girls."

Despite being berated from his three subordinates, Chrono shot a sharp gaze only at the now smug Vita. Taking a deep sigh, he continued to talk. "Fine, fine. All of those planets we discovered were uninhabited...well, archaeological digs indicate that they once had human populations but they all died out at some point. There was really no population on any of them to subjugate and even if there was, we would have opened up diplomatic talks as the situation would have been far more precarious than a solution like subjugation would solve."

"The kingdom is not at the stage that we can open up diplomatic talks with the TSAB, though." Sophie merely clenched her fists on the table again as she took in a deep breath. Even if she had long since crossed the point of no return, every step she took needed to be done carefully. "To be blunt, the Kingdom is currently facing a dire threat from anti-monarchy revolutionaries. While the royal academy kept magic under wraps due to the nature of the discovery and our lack of control at this stage, a few spies for a group that has been conspiring against the monarchy for decades is right now threatening the stability of the unified kingdom."

From that point on, Chrono and the girls simply went silent. It was fairly obvious what Sophie was about to say about the situation on her planet but it was best to keep silent and let her finish. Things needed to be on-record when all was said and done. "In all likelihood, their plans are to use magic-based weaponry in order to challenge the legitimacy of the monarchy and overthrow it and they'll take it to its utmost limit to accomplish that. In the best case scenario, the kingdom will split due to the numerous ethnic and religious factions, leading to numerous territorial skirmishes. I don't think the worst case needs to be stated from this point."

"You don't see any likelihood of the insurgent forces being quieted before that can happen?" Despite Hayate's question, it was fairly evident what the answer was and that said answer would likely be roundabout.

"A country, especially one on a global scale, is surprisingly difficult to maintain, more than most people would realize. I would say that the economy has generally been on the decline over the past decade or so due to the widening separation between classes and the degradation of the middle class." As she began to explain, Hayate and Chrono both turned to each other for a second, nodded, and then turned back to Sophie. "Normally, technological revolutions tend to revitalize the economy create more of a natural class division. That's what we would have done in the next few years when magic was slowly unveiled to the masses, but that's become precarious for numerous reasons.

"But the main problem is that the Dragon Vein Insurgency has rooted itself among the discontent lower class. Numerous sympathizers have become accomplices to them, making it much harder for the Royal Military to actually take action. After all, a government loses its legitimacy the moment it begins to attack the very people it's meant to protect.

"Ever since they abducted the Royal Academy's lead adviser for magic research, we've been thrown into chaos, all while trying to scramble to regain our bearings. Thanks to that, they were brazen enough to make an attempt on my life at the castle. That brings me here. I was originally planning to seek help originally and make sure to minimize all the risks when I did so, but my hand was forced."

The girl clasped her hands as she went silent. Her eyes started to glaze over slowly as an unpleasant sensation ran across her hands.

"Sophie-chan?" Nanoha raced over around the table and put a hand on the other princess's shoulder.

"I had to kill him to survive." Sophie unclasped her hands and looked straight into her right palm as she started to flex and extend her fingers in dissonant rhythm. "I was the one who shed the first blood. This isn't what I wanted-"

The princess cut her own words off as her breathing became erratic, her body began to produce a visible amount of sweat, and thin lines of transparent, salty water began to flow from her eyes. Nanoha turned her gaze to Aileen, who neglected to take any action as she could do naught but stare with a downcast look in her eyes towards her owner. It was highly likely that dealing with emotional distress was beyond the limits of her programming.

"Please. There's nothing I can do on my own to prevent a downward spiral. I can't do it on my own anymore. Please. Help me."

On instinct, without even consulting the others, Nanoha laid her hand down on the shoulder of the crying princess. With a smile that one could only find in a mother comforting a crying child, she made a simple affirmation, much to the dismay of her commanding officer.

"As you wish."

* * *

 **4**

"Do you realize what you just did, Nanoha?!" Staring down at his subordinate, Chrono leaned against the wall in the hallway just outside of the conference room they had been sitting in. Without a moment's hesitation, he had called Nanoha out into the hallway to give what was to be a stern lecture.

"I'm fully aware, Chrono-kun." The intimidation of the superior officer looming over her seemed to hold zero effect as she leaned against the opposite wall.

"There's no guarantee that the higher-ups would even approve of any direct intervention in the conflicts of a developing planet." Chrono continued on with his lecture. Despite her words, he was certain that Nanoha had not grasped the full gravity of what she just did.

"But that's no reason to just deny her when she's asking for help!" Her fists began to slowly clench as her frustration with what she had heard began to ferment. "She ran from another planet and took a gamble in hopes of finding someone who could help her. This is the kind of thing our magic is meant to help."

"We're not denying her anything. There's no doubt that she's distressed that she is in need of help." In the face of the raw emotion that was the White Devil's unbridled altruism, Chrono stood firm. "But, we're operating under the umbrella of the TSAB and right now, we're standing as the representatives of the TSAB while she stands as a representative of her planet. At the moment, we have zero reason to believe that the TSAB would find any benefit in taking action. It's far too early to make that declaration."

"If that's how it's going to be, then I'll take action on my own." Nanoha, fed up with the inescapable red tape surrounding everything, loosened her fists as she began to walk back to the conference room. But, she found herself stopped as Chrono placed his hand on her shoulder.

"Nanoha..." Chrono had long since realized exactly what was going on here. Even if she was physically healed, the scars of the accident on her psyche were far too deep to have healed. Regardless of whether she was capable as a soldier, the cognitive dissonance that meshed her desire to push further for the sake of those who needed help and the need to not overtax herself was interfering with her capabilities as a leader.

"There are some times when you need to step back a bit and take a look at what's going on around you. Regardless of what your heart says and regardless of how much you feel she needs help, you need to tread more carefully. You're a Lieutenant. Right now you stand here as a leader…and no matter how much that princess's own heart may be fractured, she is doing the same."

Having finished speaking, he finally let go of his subordinate. The girl's shoulders were oscillating between rising and falling, but they were surely falling. Even if it was only temporary, the turbulence of her heart had subsided. "Is this what it's always been like for you, Chrono-kun?"

"It's not a particularly pleasant position to stand in. But, that's probably something you're better off learning first-hand rather than hearing from me."

He began to make his way around Nanoha so that he would be standing in front of her. But once he was standing in front of her and walking towards the entrance of the conference room, he heard a sigh.

"Your heart wasn't in the wrong place, Nanoha. You may not have been acting like a leader, but your heart was definitely in the right place." Chrono stopped once more as his hand made contact with the door. "Regardless, we can't make that declaration prematurely. There's one more piece of important information I need to get out of her. If I'm right, we'll have that just cause to act in a matter of minutes."

Nanoha replayed the entire sequence of information that Sophie had divulged in the past few minutes but nothing of note came to mind.

"It's alright if you can't figure it out just yet. These kinds of things take some practice and observation." Nanoha was unable to see Chrono's face but she was almost certain that the boy was smiling. Was it some inner pride at having a little chance at a teaching moment or just happiness that he had been able to return his subordinate's momentum? Both seemed quite likely at the moment. "I'll teach you the importance of proper timing and observations."

Definitely the former. There was nothing quite like the pride of a teacher.

"Right!" As Chrono opened the door, Nanoha simply affirmed that she had listened and would continue to listen as the two made their way back in.

Sophie, who had been in a state of breakdown only a few minutes prior had seemingly picked herself back up and was once again sitting with the same determination she had come to the TSAB with. There was no need to determine if she simply wiped her tears because she knew what she needed to do or because she had truly put herself back together.

Either way, she was there as a leader holding the proper gravitas. Nothing more. Nothing less.

"I apologize for the rash declaration that my lieutenant made earlier." Chrono decided to begin speaking as he walked himself back to his seat and as Nanoha walked back to her position from the start of the meeting.

"That's alright. I'll admit that my display was quite unsightly as well." The girl had seemingly returned to her more steely attitude from before she had started to break down. "In retrospect, I may have forced out those words from you, Nanoha, so I must apologize."

The princess stood up and took a deep bow. "It's alright, Sophie-chan. Think nothing of it." Nanoha waved her hands in front of her face in embarrassment.

"That being said." Sophie picked herself up and stood upright. "I'm going to guess you berated her because the TSAB doesn't have just cause to intervene in another planet's conflicts, right, Rear Admiral?"

"That would be right. Despite how much of a bleeding heart Nanoha can be, we cannot simply mobilize our forces to meddle in your conflict." That was the simple, yet immutable reality of the situation. The TSAB was a military police organization. As a governmental arm, it could not act without solid justification.

"I'm glad." Sophie smiled. For the first time, things could finally go her way. She was grateful for whatever whim of fate had put her in this situation. Of that, she was certain. "I'm glad it was the TSAB that had found me."

She did not give any time for the officers to react. All they could do was raise eyebrows and give questioning gazes before she finally clarified her intents.

"Does the name Erin Crescent ring a bell?"

Chrono's gaze immediately intensified at the sound of that name. A grin had finally taken form on his face.

Without making a comment on the fact that she had hooked him in, she continued. "She was our adviser for the development of magic technology. She acted to assist us in hopes of developing a method to communicate back to the TSAB so they could locate her. Though, she was abducted by the Insurgency as of a month ago."

She had provided it. The just cause that Chrono had needed to spark action had been oh so conveniently provided to him on a silver platter.

"Will you help me save my kingdom?"

Chrono looked towards Hayate and Vita, then to Nanoha and nodded. The lead that they had been searching for was finally here. brought to them by a girl clamoring for help. For better or for worse, they knew what needed to be done.

"As you wish." With confidence and weight, Nanoha could finally say those words.

* * *

 **A/N: I guess I should quickly clarify the timeline. If the movie and StrikerS timelines were merged, Nanoha's accident happened only a few months after Reflection/Detonation. The incident happens late in year 0067 and Nanoha returns to the bureau the following summer and joins the instructor corps the following year.**

 **Because of this, I'd say a lot of the interesting development of her character is left off screen, both in terms of how she became the kind of person who she is in StrikerS to her own current path and down to how she developed as a leader, especially considering her position in the TSAB. That's what I honestly wanted to explore most with this fic and I hope to be able to take you down that path as well. It's a long journey, but I do want her growth to be something worth all the hassle in the end.**

 **Lastly, I'm sure you've probably come to the realization at this point, Fate won't be showing up during the course of this at all (and if she does, it will likely be in the epilogue). I figured the best way to let Nanoha grow would be to detach her from the other character who's practically joined at the hip with her. That combined with the fact that I really don't want to make the TSAB's cast too large that I can't give some solid enough development to them all was a huge factor.**

 **With that, I shall close off till next time.**


End file.
